Chapter 10 Section 4 Lu Xiujing’s contribution to the development of Taoism

Lu Xiujing was born in the Lu family of Wu County, a famous family in the south of the Yangtze River. It is said that he is a descendant of Lu Kai, the prime minister of Eastern Wu.He was born in the second year of Jin'an Emperor Yixi (AD 406) and died in the fifth year of Liu Song Yuanhui (AD 477), which roughly corresponds to the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the end of the Southern Dynasty Liu Song. Lu Xiujing's greatest contribution to the development of Taoism is to organize Taoist classics and formulate new Taoist precepts and rituals of Zhaijiao (jiaojiao). During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Taoist classics increased dramatically.Several classics that Ge Hong once read were expanded and adapted by Taoist priests at this time, and became a series of Taoist scriptures with many chapters, which were later called "Three Emperors of the Cave God".There is another set of Taoist scriptures called "Lingbaojing", which was handed down to Ge Chaofu, the grandson of the Gehong clan. " or " Dongxuan Lingbao Jing ".The "Huang Ting Jing" mentioned by Ge Hong has gradually derived a large series of Taoist scriptures, called "Shang Qing Jing" or "Dadong Zhen Jing".

The large-scale production of "Shangqing Jing" began in the second year of Xingning (364 A.D.) of Emperor Ai of Jin Dynasty, and was produced by Taoist Yang Xi.In fact, these series of Taoist scriptures were compiled in batches by some upper-class Taoist priests who were born in the gentry after the middle of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.They even took over some of the content of Buddhism, such as karma, karma, and reincarnation of the three generations.A series of Taoist scriptures is often formed by continuous expansion and forgery in the process of teaching from master to student.Therefore, a group of people who specialize in teaching a certain series of classics becomes a Taoist school.For example, those who mainly spread the "Lingbao Jing" are called the Lingbao School, and those who mainly spread the "Shangqing Jing" are called the Shangqing School.

The Taoist scriptures of the Lingbao sect talk about praying to the gods, and there are many Taoist "legal events" such as worship, fasting and offering sacrifices.Therefore, this school pays more attention to relying on these public ceremonial activities for publicity, which they call "education and persuasion".The Taoist scriptures of the Shangqing sect talk about thinking, chanting scriptures, convincing qi and pharynx, and other cultivation methods, so this sect pays more attention to personal cultivation practice, and also pays attention to doing good deeds, accumulating merits and other moral good deeds.

The important classic "Huang Ting Jing" of the Shangqing School is divided into two parts, the full name is "Tai Shang Huang Ting Interior View Jade Classic" and "Tai Shang Huang Court External View Jade Classic".The writing styles of these two scriptures are different, and they were written in the early morning and the other late, but they preach similar principles. The whole book of "Huang Ting Jing" is written in the form of seven-character rhymes, and it is a work of religious thought and medical knowledge of health preservation.It is based on the saying in ancient books that the viscera and organs of the human body are guarded by gods, combined with the medical theory of Qin and Han Dynasties, it expounds the theory of Taoist gods' health preservation and the methods of Taoism.There are two main points in the book, one is to keep thinking (equivalent to meditation) to open up the mind, and the other is to convince the energy and accumulate essence.

For example, it says that there are the following gods of viscera: The ancients did not know that the human brain is where the central nervous system is located, and believed that the seven emotions and six desires originate from the heart, and thinking activities also originate from the heart.Therefore, words related to emotional thinking in Chinese characters, such as "resentment", "thought", etc., all have a "heart".That is to say, the heart is where the "spirit" is; the ancients also believed that the liver is associated with the eyes; the kidney is responsible for giving birth to offspring.It can be seen that the names of these viscera gods are mostly compiled based on the basic understanding of the physiological functions of viscera.In addition to the viscera, various tissues and organs of the human body and key arteries and veins also have gods. The "Huang Ting Jing" said that if these gods leave people, evil spirits may take advantage of the emptiness and enter, and the physiological functions of the relevant organs and tissues will be lost.Therefore, if you want to live forever, you must meditate on the images and appearances of various gods in your body in silence according to the method it says, and keep in touch with them.

In addition, you must adhere to the so-called self-cultivation method of convincing qi and accumulating essence.Convincing qi, also known as food qi, is divided into internal qi and external qi.Taking internal qi refers to taking the vitality in the human body; taking external qi refers to taking the so-called vitality of the universe, such as the essence of the sun and the moon.Accumulating essence is to accumulate the essence of life called by Taoism——yuanjing through persuasion; at the same time, one should also be careful not to waste it, especially when it comes to sex life.According to the book, convincing the Qi and accumulating essence and retaining the mind are complementary to each other.

"Huang Ting Jing" occupies an important position in the history of the development of Taoist inner alchemy, and is also cherished by people outside Taoism, especially intellectuals in the feudal era. By the time of Lu Xiujing, Taoist scriptures had been so confused due to forgery and indiscriminate distribution that it was difficult to distinguish the authenticity from the false.Therefore, people need to sort it out, clarify the source of teaching, and eliminate the false and keep the true.Lu Xiujing searched and searched Taoist scriptures everywhere. He once "reached Hengxiang and Jiuyi in the south" and "reached Emei and Qingcheng in the west", covering half of China.From 437 AD, he began to sort out the "Lingbao Jing" and compiled "Lingbao Jingmu".He entered Beijing from Mount Lu in 467 A.D. and lived in the Chongxu Hall built for him by Emperor Song Ming (reigned 465-472 A.D.).The Emperor Ming showed him the authentic "Shangqing Jing Jue" handwritten by Yang Xi and others collected by the imperial court, and asked him to sort out the bibliography of the Daoist scriptures.In the seventh year of Emperor Taishi of the Song Dynasty (471 A.D.), Lu Xiujing completed this work and wrote it into the "Catalogue of Three Cave Classics".Among them, there are as many as 1,228 volumes describing Dao Jing, prescriptions and symbols.

To compile various Daoist scriptures together, it is necessary to classify them into categories and pay attention to the order of the front and back.Lu Xiujing sorted out the scriptures and compiled the table of contents, which laid the foundation for the classification method of Daozang later. "Tao Zang" is classified according to "three caves, four supplementary and twelve categories", which was gradually developed on the basis of Lu Xiujing. The three caves include Dongzhen, Dongxuan and Dongshen.The category of Dongzhen includes the "Shangqing Jing", the category of Dongxuan includes the "Lingbao Jing", and the category of Dongshen includes the "Three Emperors".

The four assistants include Taixuan, Taiping, Taiqing and Zhengyi.These four are said to be set up to assist the three holes, so they are called Sifu.The classics included in each department are differentiated in content. The twelve categories are: the first text, the second divine talisman, the third jade formula, the fourth spiritual map, the fifth spectrum record, the sixth commandment, the seventh prestige, the eighth method, the ninth art, the tenth biography, The Eleventh Praise, Chapter Twelfth Table. When Lu Xiujing compiled the "Lingbao Jingmu", he divided the "Lingbao Jing" into these 12 categories.Later Taoists further arranged the other two cave classics according to this classification.Therefore, the existing "Orthodox Taoist Collection" officially compiled in the Ming Dynasty is divided into 12 categories in each of the three caves, a total of 36 categories, plus the four supplementary classics, the content is even richer.However, the works of Taoist priests in the Wei and Jin Dynasties were often randomly compiled into various departments. It seems that the classification of "Three Caves and Four Auxiliaries" is not worthy of the name and is very messy.

Lu Xiujing formulated and perfected the Taoist precepts and rituals of fasting and sacrifice, which also had a great influence on Taoism in later generations.Taoism has a set of disciplines that restrict people who enter the Tao, called precepts or precepts.The content of precepts mainly stipulates the matters that Taoist believers should abide by, and the content of precepts is mainly about the punishment provisions for Taoist priests who break the precepts.Taoism also has a set of distinctive religious ceremonies, called Zhaijiao, also known as Daochang and Buddhist rituals.Fasting and Jiao were originally two different things.The original meaning of fasting is Qi and Jing, that is, to clean up one's body and mind before offering sacrifices to the gods, to show respect to the gods, and to behave well.There are many kinds of fasting methods, such as the offering fasting for the gods, the vegetarian fasting for vegetarians, the heart fasting for not thinking wildly and focusing on the Tao, and so on.The original meaning of Jiao is sacrifice, that is, offering sacrifices to gods and praying for blessings and avoiding disasters.Later, fasting and Jiao were gradually separated and became the same thing.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Taoist precepts and rituals of Zhaijiao had a great development.Kou Qianzhi in the Northern Dynasties paid the most attention to the precepts and rituals of fasting and offering sacrifices.Among the Sandong Taoist scriptures circulated in the Southern Dynasties, many of them focus on various precepts, such as "The One Hundred and Eighty Precepts Said by the Laojun", and some of the content is copied from Buddhism.These precepts still need to be enriched, perfected and standardized.The same is true with respect to rituals of fasting and offering sacrifices. Lu Xiujing synthesized the precepts and sacrificial rituals of various schools of Taoism that he knew, and sorted out a relatively complete set of regulations.According to "Maoshan Zhi" records, he wrote more than 100 volumes of related works.Lu Xiujing not only made specific regulations on the practices of various ashrams, but also theoretically demonstrated the importance of fasting and offering sacrifices.He said that fasting and offering sacrifices are the foundation of cultivating Taoism and seeking immortality, and no other cultivation methods can compare with it.On the top, it can achieve Taoism and become an immortal, ascending to heaven in the daytime; in the middle, it can protect the country and protect the family, and prolong life;If you want to ask why there is such a "miracle effect", Lu Xiujing said that the specific rituals of worship, chanting, and contemplating the gods are all very particular.People's limbs, tongue, and heart are easy to become the source of disease and disaster.Stealing, killing and other bad things are done by the body and limbs; foul language and disputes between right and wrong come from the tongue; all kinds of greed, resentment, anger and evil thoughts come from the heart.When people kneel down to worship God, they can control their body and limbs; chanting Taoist scriptures can control their tongues; always thinking about the image of God can control their hearts.In this way, people have no time to do bad things, and the root cause of life damage is eradicated, so they can achieve Taoism and become immortals.Some of these sayings come from Buddhism. Lu Xiujing embodies the characteristics of the integration of various schools of Taoism, and also reflects the mutual absorption of the relationship between Buddhism and Taoism.